It captures the country western theme and flavor far better than P/B or S/B do. I might be wrong but while it may not be out of a textbook, that is not the No. 1 goal of the ODs this season. I think they are supposed to the be more theme dances than ones designed to specifically mimic certain step patterns. Otherwise, there would have been more allowances for dances like flamencos to directly translate their stomping movements directly to the ice without alteration.

how are lasso twirls and finger guns authentic in theming? it *might* be stereotype... but authentic?

That was a very entertaining OD competition! I enjoyed so many of the dances. The Reeds did a nice job in front of the home crowd, good for them. Loved the Kerrs, they were rockin' the place! Of course, D/W blew me away as always. They just keep on improving and I'm loving those killer scores! Again, just in a league of their own here. This OD is really something special.

Kerr & Kerr were second after the CD at TEB but went down to the third after the OD and ended up with the third overall. I'm glad that they are holding onto the second position here in NHK. I hope they get the silver medal this time.

They should ... the gap between them and C/P is HUGE. Barring multiple mistakes, they should comfortably take home the silver.

What on earth is wrong with Summersett/Gilles? Is there an injury or illness? I didn't expect them to be in medal contention but I also didn't expect them to be last after two portions of the event either.

I usually love the Kerr's (well I still do) but the verdict is still out (for me) on their OD. It's entertaining (as mishieru07 said when are Sinead and John not entertaining) but it still feels more like an exhibition than a OD. Maybe it's the music or some of the sound effects. I'm very interested to see how K&K's OD holds up against the OD's of P&B (which IMO is just as much fun but a better competitive piece) and F&S (another excellent OD IMO).

I just feel their past three OD's (especially the Scottish folk and last years Swing) were better. Maybe I'll feel differently as the season progresses.

What on earth is wrong with Summersett/Gilles? Is there an injury or illness? I didn't expect them to be in medal contention but I also didn't expect them to be last after two portions of the event either.
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Well I Think they are a lovely team and I adored their programs last season. But as a peruvian I must say their OD is plain bad. There was nothing even remotely close to Peruvian Folk/Dance. I wouldn't give them higher than 4 on INterpretation and Choreography. If you are gonna try something you're not too familiar with at least do some research. And same goes for Chock/Zuerleins atrocious AfroCuban (yeah right) OD. Major fail at getting the charachter of the Rhythm.

I guess that does explain things as I didn't realize S&G's OD was supposed to be a Peruvian folk dance. Only the music hints at Peruvian folk. It's a shame about the OD as I love their FD but even skated well I don't think it's going to pull them up all that much if at all. S&G already have too big a deficit to come back from.

I also like C&Z but I agree with you about their Afro-Brazilian dance. Watching their performance at CoC, I thought it looked like the type of Latin dances the U.S. dancers used to use for their FD's back in the 90's. And unfortunately I didn't mean that in a good way.

Summersett/Gilles (Peruvian Folk Dance) 39.16
Jane is wearing a scoop necked, long sleeved white jersey with a v back, a navy blue full skirt with a wide red embroidered waistband lined with bright red and red embroidery at the hem and a navy wide headband. The red underside shows attractively throughout the dance.
Todd is wearing an off white with woven in stripes of a slightly lighter white peasant blouse with puffy sleeves and black pants

They seem very slow. Music is same as Duchesnay's Missing I. Step sequence definitely a bit reminiscent of Duchesnays. First Twizzles nice with skating leg bent and free leg out to the side. Second set with hands behind back. Jane was a bit off. Lift has a swoopy start, stops and changes position. Step sequence slow and Jane had a tiny stumble.

Hann-McCurdy Coreno (Italian Tarantella) 44.75
Michael in white shirt with black lacings, red vest, black peasant knee britches with red scarves below the knee and red and black wide striped socks, and a red waist sash.. He has grown a goatee and a mustache and it looks well on him
Allie has.a white scoop neck shirt with a ruffle at the neckline, a black vest with peasant lacing in the front and a white skirt with a stripy band above the hem line and a red apron and red hair tie on her pony tail

They begin with stamping steps to set the tone of the dance. Again they seem to have made an effort to be authentic. The twizzles have one set in attitude position. The lift had several positions but did not flow between positions that well. The last step sequence had some decent edges in it and an extra quick rotation lift to end (quite nice). The skating was slow and the timing seemed off in spots. He did a number of jumps with heel clicking . Still this will be a nice distraction amongst all the flamencos at Canadian nationals.

Mysliveckova/Novak (Finnish Polka) 43.28
Same costumes as at Cup of Russia, including the big painted on freckles in her makeup. She has skewed ponytails with multicolored ties, a jumper in blue with white over the bust, a white slip under it, and lacy stripes under the bust. He is wearing blue striped vest and blue pants and a white shirt and looks ready to skate to Sing, sing, sing somehow. The audience gets into it and claps along during the Ieva's Polka part (this song was used in a Japanese anime (Holly Dolly song)) The straight line lift seemed fairly simple. The twizzles in each of the step sequences are fine but she has a lot of trouble with the first set of twizzles where she has to hold her foot in the twizzle sequence. I like the slide between his legs and back out at one point. They have a fast rotational lift to end with a slight stumble into their closing pose.

Reed/Reed (Japanese Folk) 46.36
She is in a black kimono with stylized white, gold, and grey chrsanthemums and a gold obi. She has red eye liner and whitish makeup and a red hair tie. He has black pants with a short robe over it embroidered with what appears to be white and gray spiders. They both have fans. Hers has pink and red edges, his has bands of green. They start with a step sequence, waving the fans. The music is quite slow. They continue to use the fans through the lift (rather simple lift) The drum music starts and the audience claps with it throughout enthusiastically. Elvis Stojko used this music. Their twizzles seemed short of rotations, particularly hers. The audience stands and gives them a really nice ovation. They fan themselves in the KnC

Huang/Zheng (Greek Folk (Zorba the Greek)) 48.34
They have the same lingerie like white and aqua nylon outfits they had at CoC with a lot of Greek key patterned red and gold trim. His hangs off one shoulder and reminds me of the lingerie that Walter Matthau gave Elaine May in "A New Leaf", where she couldn't figure out where the arm went and where the head went. They are skating faster than the previous pairs and using a lot of arm motions over the head with the wrist flexed. The twizzles are reasonably neat this week They get down and do a turn in lunge position in the footwork (nice). Their timing to the music falters a bit when they end with the faster music. Definitely better than the previous couples. They get a season's best score.

Warm Up Group 2

Zadorozhniuk/Verbillo (Ukrainian Folk) 49.01
They both have on red Ukrainian dancing boots. She has the traditional floral headdress with the multi colored ribbons in streamers. She has a very color clashy outfit -a chartreuse embroidered vest over a white blouse, and a dark purple, bright red, and hot pink skirt with the colors in single wide horizontal stripes . He has the huge, wide wide legged, traditional red pants with a chartreuse (and beige? gold?) long sash, and white embroidered peasant blouse. They open with twizzles with one hand behind the head (very traditional) and then the second set with hands behind the back. They do a rotational lift with her hanging on to one of his arms. When the music speeds up, they don't quite keep pace.

Bobrova/Soloviev (Yablochko; Russian Sailor Dance) 47.51
They are both in Russian sailor outfits with the white Donald Duck hat with the black headband and black streamers. They have black pants and blue tops with white sailor collars. Starts with heel and toe work and arms akimbo. Mostly the actually skating is from the stock book of steps with little character at first. The twizzles don't get enough rotations for level 4, maybe not enough for level 3 on the 2nd set, and they are stumbly and out of sync, and she can't hold on to her foot. Rotational lift with her saluting thoughout. They end with her taking off her hat to reveal she is really a woman.

Crone/Poirier (Flamenco) 50.87
He's wearing Patrick Swayze's Dirty Dancing outfit, but in black-V neck top, black pants. She has on the same huge polka dotted number she had on at CoR. This is a much better look for them. And their skating is a lot smoother than at CoR. Good deep edges on the first step sequence. Twizzles slightly out of unison. They still don't look to quite get the arrogance + sex attitude of the flamenco. Perhaps the dance is a little too old for so young a couple. They are one of the few to do an optional dance spin.

Kerr/Kerr (American Country; I've Been Everywhere) 56.53
The audience gives them a great ovation. Obviously, they have lots of fans here in Japan! This was a lot crisper and tidier than in France. She picks him up hitch hiking, and in the final pose, he is driving the truckand puts on the brakes. I like his floppy straw hat! There is a short two step section, but most of this was line dancish. He does a great, high side kick in the footwork.

Davis/White (Indian Folk Dance; Devdas 63.09
And their PCS scores are drifting into almost Navka-esque regions. 8.70 for choreography, 8.50 for interpretation.

They're having a great time dancing this dance, and their speed is a notch up from the others.
You've got to appreciate the fact that they have added Indian folk dance elements to every move in this program. Nothing is 100% recycled from their stock list of past tricks. Their arm motions are mostly in sync throughout, and are in character. Her head movements are particularly nice and snappy side to side, as they should be. They are trying very hard to get the edges deeper to get level four on the step sequences. I wonder whether they got them. I like that she hits a pose at the top of their complex left. They drift apart on the twizzles. I like the in character hand motions they are trying to do here. Well done.

Congratulations to the Kerrs! I met them once in NJ. They're such nice people (from what I could tell) and I immediately became a fan! If they keep it up in the FD, it looks like they will be going to the final! (Kind of a breakthrough for them)